It is often difficult for users to set-up peripherals, and particularly peripherals, such as printers in an office network environment, to perform the jobs that the user wants to perform if the user is limited to using current, prior art “print driver” set-up method. The prior art requires the user to actively find and open the driver to control the advanced functions of the device. The problem with peripheral devices and the drivers therefor applies to print, fax, scan and multi-function peripheral (MFP) devices. For example, a user typically has only to click an icon on a task bar of an application, such as a Windows™ application which causes peripheral to proceed using preset, default parameters, without ever bringing up a driver user interface (UI). Alternatively, a user may select an option from within the “File” menu. At this point, the application presents a dialog box, which usually contains a “Properties” button that will bring up the driver UI. Only at this point may the user specify how the user would like the job to be performed by the peripheral device. Because of the difficulty of this approach, few users are able to take advantage of the capabilities of powerful modern office peripherals, or, may do so only with considerable effort.
In addition, considering the increased capabilities of modern office peripherals, a user may want and need to change settings often. For example, the user may want to print double sided documents and needs to be able easily to turn the duplex function on and off. Likewise, the user may need to turn a staple function on and off. Prior art devices force the user to go through the process of modifying the print driver as described above, which is inefficient and time consuming. Because of the complexity of modifying a print driver, the process is also error prone. Perhaps the most irritating aspect of modifying a printer driver is that the modification generally “sticks” —becoming a default setting, so that if the user has printed a document in duplex, landscape and stapled, the next document will also print in duplex, landscape and be stapled, unless the user remembers to reset the printer driver to more conventional settings, such a s simplex, portrait, no staple.
The prior art is illustrated in FIGS. 1-3. In FIG. 1, an application window is shown at 10. The first step of a print process requires the user to Click “File” 12, then select “Print” 14. It should be noted that, in many Windows™ applications, if the user clicks “Print” icon 16, the job is immediately sent to a printer, with no opportunity for the user to select any options. An application print UI, or “Print Menu” appears, as shown in FIG. 2 at 18. Note that this menu contains a “Properties” button 20. Clicking on “Properties” button 20 produces a printer driver UI, or “Properties Menu” 22 of FIG. 3, which provides access to five additional menus (Finishing, Effects, Paper, Destination, and Basics), each containing a variety of print options, such as “Duplex” 24, “Print Quality” 26, “Collate” 28, etc. The user must search through five menus, setting specific parameters, from each of the menus. Once the “Properties are set, the user must select “OK” on each of the five “Properties” menus, and then select “OK” on the “Print” menu.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,114 to Kawamura et al, for Printer comprising display means for displaying operation state thereof, granted Feb. 5, 1991, describes a user interface which only provides for status display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,077 to Schooley, for Printer having an active user interface feature, granted Sep. 10, 1996, describes a user interface which is specific to a device rather than relating to the printer driver.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,411 to McCormick et al., for Printer status user interface and methods relating thereto, granted Jan. 6, 1998, only provides for status display and does not provide a user interface for setting of user preferences.